SURVEYING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT WITH DEVELOPING COMPETITIVE STRENGTH

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1 ALBERTIANA ISSN ; VOL. 8; SPECIAL ISSUE; PP SURVEYING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT WITH DEVELOPING COMPETITIVE STRENGTH MORTEZA FARAJI* *Corresponding Author Faculty of Management, Firouzkooh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran MARYAM HAJI GHORBANI Faculty of Management, Firouzkooh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran RASOUL RAHMATI Faculty of Management, Firouzkooh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran ABSTRACT In the research we tried to survey the influence of customer relationship management on gaining competitive strength in an Iranian insurance company (Asia). The research is applicable from goal view and descriptive from data collection. To measure CRM, seven main dimensions contain knowledge management, technology, top management, personnel, personalization and system integrations were applied. A questionnaire include 45 questions was designed and distributed among 177 top managers, marketing managers and marketers of Asia insurance as statistical society which decreased into 10 ones applying sampling formula. The results illustrated that customer relationship management and its dimensions except system integration affect significantly on gaining competitive strength in Asia insurance company. KEYWORDS: CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT; COMPETITIVE STRENGTH; CUSTOMER SATISFACTION. 1- INTRODUCTION Developing a superior customer relationship management capability that is creating and managing close customer relationship is expected to be one of the most important sources of superior performance in today's competitive business environment (Day, 00; Kale, 004) in (Battor, 010). Ramaseshan, et al (006) pointed out that as the era of globalization continues to manifest through the emergence of global companies, the importance of customer relationship management in these companies has become increasingly significant. Ryals and Payne (001) argue that CRM is more commonly used in the context of technology solutions and has been described as "information enabled relationship marketing" CRM is often misused with the term CRM technology (Reinartz et al., 004; Boulding et al., 005; Frow and Payne, 009). Toe et al, (006) articulate that organizations approach CRM differently, e.g, some may view CRM as a technology tool while others may view it as an essential part of business. Hence, there is a need for a holistic approach by organization to integrate IT with its business processes and customer service delivery. Recent research has attempted to correct this over simplification by broadening the view of CRM and regarding it as a strategic method that focuses on development of profitable, long-term relationships with key customers by melding relationship marketing and information Received in 3 February, 015 Revised in 10 May, 015 Accepted in 6 June 015

2 Albertiana 015; Vol. 8; Special Issue; Pp technology and aligning the organization to foster such relationships (Payne and Frow, 005). Lin & Su (003) articulate that formulating CRM strategies can also create valuable marketing opportunities, increase customer value and enhance customer satisfaction in the pursuit of business excellence. CRM is otherwise known as loyalty (Srivastava et al, 1998). Customer loyalty has been universally recognized as a valuable asset in competitive markets (Srivastava et al, 1998). It provides an ideal environment for this permission based exchange of information, creating a competitive advantage and driving increase in profit (Sahoo, 011). In fact some research has found that approximately 70 % of the firms that invested in CRM projects experienced no improvement or even declines in their performance (Gartner group, 003; Gartner research, 008). In the current paper we are trying to survey the influence of customer relationship management in Asia insurance. -LITERATURE REVIEW In the past decades, the challenge for businesses was optimizing production process to reply to growing demand, and using marketing techniques to capture customers in the market (Brookes & Palmer, 004; Gummesson, 1999; Sheth & Parvatiyar, 00). Goods Manufacturers today are competing in a sever business environment, and transaction marketing (product, price, place, and promotion, the 4 Ps) alone is perceived to be insufficient (Denison & McDonald, 1995; Tapscott & Caston, 1993). As a result, CRM is recommended for establishing unique relationships with customers and for generating more value to goods and services than what is possible through traditional transaction marketing (Grönroos, 000; Lindgreen & Wynstra, 005). Customer retention is necessary and this calls for loyalty which is caused by great service, trust and, to a degree, personalization (Abbott, 001). Then, Relationship marketing is not only about the 4Ps but also long-term relationships, proposing a transaction-relationship continuum (Webster, 199). An early definition of relationship marketing is provided by Grönroos (1990), The role of relationship marketing is to identify, establish, maintain and enhance relationships with customers and other stakeholders, at a profit, so that the objectives of all other parties involved are met; and that this is done by a mutual exchange and fulfillment of promises. According to Grönroos s definition, then, CRM is the management of relationship marketing applied to (a business s) customers (Lindgreen et al, 004). This is in accordance with Zablah, Bellenger, and Johnston (004) who identify the goal of CRM as building and maintaining a profit maximizing portfolio of customer relationships. The key issues emerging out of the body of literature relating to firms deployment of CRM include the following: The reasons why firms might implement CRM (Objectives) The functions that are possible via CRM Evaluation of the effectiveness of such tasks Critical Success factors for CRM implementation Factors for evaluating CRM effectiveness (Mehrmanesh et al, 015) Theoretical postulate has it that the higher the rate to which an organization or company practices good customer relationship, the higher the rate of customer loyalty to its brands or products. Parvatiyar and Sheth (001) reported that several researchers, especially those in the area of information systems and decision technologies, are also exploring new methodologies and techniques that create efficient frontline information systems to effectively manage relationships with customers. According to Ragins and Greco (003), CRM offer organizations several advantages and benefits. They went ahead to say that, more than repeated purchaser; the committed customer has an emotional attachment to the seller. These emotions can include trust, liking, and believing in the organization s ability to respond effectively and promptly to customers problem. Customers can be viewed as organizational assets who are likely to be a source of favorable word-ofmouth referrals and are resistant to competitor s offers. It also requires a great deal of efforts to induce an extremely satisfied customer to turn away from their business attachments. As noted by Achumba (004), a 97

3 Albertiana 015; Vol. 8; Special Issue; Pp new customer can only be made through a complex process awareness of the existence of the firms products and the channels of distribution. Therefore, the fallout of the situation is to generate revenue by increasing customer retention through CRM. It is a journey of stages; strategy, process, organizational and technical change whereby a company seeks to better manage its own enterprise around customers behaviors. The end goal is to acquire, retain and grow profitable customers. It requires a clear focus on the service attributes that represent value to customers and create loyalty. CRM consists of five elements: strategy, technology, segmentation, process and organization (Handen, 000). He viewed it as a technology-enabled strategy to convert data driven into business actions in response to, and in anticipation of actual customer behavior. From a technology perspective, CRM represents a process to measure and allocate organizational resources to activity that has the greatest returns and impact on profitable customer relationship. Babatunde and Ajayi (010) also viewed CRM, as an emerging customer innovation which focuses on growing customers profitably by delivering value to the customer in a bid to enhance customer intimacy, this is achieved through increase in quality levels and enhanced business penetration. In the view of Croteau and Li (009), CRM is a tremendous step forward in creating a system that provides a means of retaining individual loyalty. However, Greenberg (008) believe that, understanding CRM requires the understanding of the changing nature of customers. Businesses now adopt CRM systems due to its benefits which lie in helping to build up long-term customer relationships. In turn, consumers have grown accustomed to dealing with businesses that proactively understand and serve their needs (Vimani, 007). CRM is an umbrella concept that places the customer at the core of an organization. Likewise, it is also concerned with coordinating customer relation across all business functions, points of interaction, and audiences. While retaining customer loyalty has been a sale principle for a very long time, CRM is actually a tremendous step forward in creating a system that can provide a means for retaining individual loyalty in a world of many souls (Croteau and Li, 001),. In order to understand CRM, one must also understand the dynamics of customers because customers are not consistently what they are theoretically hypothesized to be (Greenberg, 001). The figure below illustrates the influence of customer relationship management in gaining competitive strength. In the figure, customer relationship management and its dimensions include knowledge management, technology, top management, personnel, personalization and system integrations are independent variables and Competitive strength is dependent one. Knowledge management Technology Top management Personnel Personalization Systems integration CRM Competitive strength FIGURE 1: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF RESEARCH Customer relationship management has significant influence on Knowledge management has significant influence on Technology affects has significant influence on Top management has significant influence on Personnel has significant influence on Competitive strength. Personalization has significant influence on Systems integration has significant influence on 98

4 Albertiana 015; Vol. 8; Special Issue; Pp RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The study was done in a society involving 01 employees of Asia insurance in Tehran- Iran. Whereas this number seems to be too much, the sampling was done through an integral counting method. NZ pq 1 n ( N 1) Z 1 51 (1.96) (0.5) pq 50 (0.05) (1.96) (0.5) 334 So the sample is 334 employees. Also the sampling strategy is branch random. Current study can be considered as a descriptive survey if to view from data collection aspect and as an applied research if to investigate the goals of the study. To collect the data library method (to refer to books, articles, libraries, etc...) and fieldworks (questionnaire) was being used. For gathering data, a questionnaire in two parts was designed with 43 questions with 5 point likert scale. To analyze the data SPSS 19 and Spearman, Friedman, Chi-square and binomial tests and Entropy technique were utilized. The management experts were being asked to evaluate the validity of questionnaires. For this mean, the questionnaires were given to some professors and experts in management, and after their modifications were being applied and they confirmed it, the questionnaires were given to the participants. To determine the questionnaires' reliability, the 'Cronbach Alpha technique' was applied. For this purpose, 30 people were chosen by random (from the statistical samples) and the questionnaires were given to them. The 'Cronbach Alpha' values for all variables were calculated. These values support the reliability of questionnaires, because the calculated results for Cronbach s alpha are more than (0.7). TABLE 3: THE RESULTS OF RELIABILITY Variables Cronbach Alpha CRM 0.81 Competitive strength DATA ANALYSIS 4-1- KOLMOGOROV-SMIRNOV TEST The test was applied to survey normality of statistical society. As Table 4 illustrates that normality of normality of statistical society was rejected, so some nonparametric tests were applied. TABLE : THE RESULTS OF APPLYING KOLMOGOROV-SMIRNOV Variables Sig CRM Competitive strength BINOMIAL TEST Binomial test has been applied to measure the Competitive strength, customer relationship management and its dimensions in statistical society. The results are shown in Table 8: TABLE 8: THE RESULTS OF APPLYING BINOMIAL TEST Variables Ob. prop Sig Result Customer relationship management Fav Knowledge management Fav Technology Fav Top management UnFav Personnel Fav Personalization UnFav Systems integration Fav Competitive strength Fav As Table 9 shows all variables apart from top management and personalization were placed in high levels. 5-CONCLUSION In the current paper we tried to survey the influence of customer relationship management on gaining competitive strength in Asia insurance. The results show that customer relationship management and its dimensions except system integration affect significantly on gaining competitive strength. Among CRM dimensions personnel, top management and personalization were selected as the most important dimensions. Meanwhile top management and personalization were placed in low levels. As top management was placed in unfavorable level and from the other side was selected as the second important dimension, managers are suggested to attend it. It can be claimed that improving the factor will affect competitive strength in Asia insurance significantly. Attending to the results, managers are advised to: 99

5 Albertiana 015; Vol. 8; Special Issue; Pp Considering appropriate budget to utilize newer and updated technologies like modern software Servicing in base of customers needs and desires designing suitable tools like knowledge management integrated system making educational courses to make employees more familiar with knowledge management definition and tools linking organizational vision and mission with the strategies and executive plans measuring customer satisfaction periodically have periodic meeting with goal customer to find their wants REFERENCES [1] Abbott, J., Stone, M. and Buttle, F. (001), Customer relationship management in practice a qualitative study, Journal of Database Marketing, 9:1, 4-34 [] Achumba, I. C. (004): Sales Management Concepts Strategies, and Cases, Mukugamu & Bros Ent. Lagos. [3] Babatunde B.O and E.O. Ajayi, 010. The relevance of customer relationship management in the Nigeria banking sector (A case study of Intercontinental Bank Plc). Information management 1; [4] Battor, M and Battor, M., (010), The impact of customer relationship management capability on innovation and performance advantages: testing a mediated model, Journal of Marketing Management Vol 6 No.9 pp [5] Boulding, W., Staelin, R., Ehret, M. and Johnston,W.J.(005), A CRM roadmap: what we know, potential pitfalls, and where to go, Journal of Marketing, Vol 69, Oct, pp [6] Brookes, R. & Palmer, R. A. (004) 'The new global marketing reality', Basingstoke Palgrave. [7] Brown (000), CRM is neither a concept nor a project. Instead, a business strategy, which aims to understand, anticipates and manages the needs of the organizational current and potential customers. [8] Brown, S. A. (000). Preface. In S. A. Brown (Ed.) Customer relationship management: A strategic imperative in the world of e-business Toronto: Wiley. [9] Croteau and Li, (009) critical success factors of CRM Technology Initiatives, Canadian Journal of administrative sciences. [10] Croteau, A.M and Li P, (001), critical success factors of CRM Technology Initiatives, Canadian-Journal of administrative sciences (1), [11] Day, G. (00). Winning the competition for customer relationships. Working paper, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. [1] Denison, T., & McDonald, M. (1995) 'The role of marketing: Past, present and future', Journal of Marketing Practice, 1(1), [13] Gartner Group CRM success is in strategy and implementation, not software. [online] URL: Accessed3 March, 003. [14] Gartner Research (008), Personal correspondence with Mr Ed Thompson of Gartner Research, Oct 008, Gartner, Stamford, CT. [15] Greenberg, P (001) CRM at the speed of light, capturing and keeping in internet Real Time. Berkeley, Osborne/MC Graw-Hill. [16] Grönroos, C. (1990) 'Relationship approach to marketing in service contexts: The marketing and organizational behavior interface.' Journal of Business Research, 0:1, 3-11 [17] Grönroos, C. (000) "Service management and marketing", Chichester John Wiley and Sons. 300

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